By H H Mohrmen
This is one of the worst ever week in the history of Meghalaya where not less than fifty people lost their lives to floods and law and order problem. Property worth crores of rupees was damaged in the process. Our hearts go out to the people who have lost their near and dear ones and we pray for the departed. May their souls rest in peace.
A young man Mebanker Passah who was a final year student of Bachelor of Homoeopathic Medicines and Surgery at Dharwad Karnataka was brutally killed and his body was dumped at the railway station. A promising young life was snatched away from the parents and his near and dear ones.
The mood was depressing and the weather in the entire state too wore a gloomy look throughout the week with heavy rains lashing down on us. Some are of the opinion that the freak weather conditions are an outcome of climate change which in turn is affecting various parts of the planet. The inclement weather created havoc in the entire state. The last press report stated that over 47 people lost their lives due to floods and landslides in the Garo hills area alone. In the rest of the State there were two reports of people being carried away over by over flowing rivers, one each in the West Jaintia hills and East Khasi hills districts. This takes the total loss of lives to floods and landslides to one less than the half century mark. The Government is yet to come up with the estimated report of loss of Government and private properties to the recent floods. One wonders if loss to the farming community in terms of crops and other agriculture related damage can ever be estimated.
While we all appreciate the efforts made by those courageous men and women who were involved in rescue and rehabilitation of the affected people and those who were on the frontline to uphold rule of law, one cannot also deny the fact that it was obvious from what had happened in both the floods and the firing incidents that the State Government machinery was not prepared for such eventualities. In case of natural calamities the Government lacks preparedness and cannot perform an act as simple as providing prior information of the impending threat of natural calamities, like floods to the people. The meteorological department should have shared the prediction of incessant rain with the community so that people can move to safer places while there was still time. This would have prevented loss of lives in the flood prone areas. What is the point of the Meteriology Department having sophisticated equipments if they cannot predict a cloud burst? The state government has also spent crores of rupees in installing fancy information and public announcement systems which were not put to good use during times of crises.
The district administration of East Jaintia Hills and the organizer of the economic blockade the Movement of Indigenous People Rights and Livelihood (MIPRL) could have prevented the unfortunate firing incident in East Jaintia hills had the parties exercised constraint. But one doubts if the two parties even met before the blockade. Police Intelligence have failed to anticipate the mood of the mob when the police chief himself was hurt in the attack, a female magistrate was manhandled and a public vehicle was burnt the previous day. In such situations one would expect the district administration to prepare for any eventuality, but that did not happen and two precious lives were lost while six people were injured in the firing. Chaphrang H Passah a seniour journalist in the district has rightly questioned on his Facebook post, why the police did not exercise restraint and first resort to lathi charge, tear gas or even water canon to try to disperse the mob before live bullets were used? But the more important question is whether the government provides tear gas, lathis or even rubber bullets to the police who have to deal with protestors? Were the police on duty on that fateful evening trained to deal with unruly protestors are or are they the same police that are being used in counter-insurgency operations in other parts of the state?
The two incidents should serve as a lesson for the government and as Patrician Mukhim, the Editor of the Shillong Times has suggested the government should have its own crisis response cell and maybe it is also high time that the government institutes a special police unit to deal with protestors or unruly crowds.
But the same question can be posed to the leaders of MIPRL. They knew before hand that the situation in East Jaintia Hills District was tense and the mob had already attacked senior government officials in uniform and on duty and government property was torched the previous day. As responsible leaders they should at least advice the mob to exercise restraint and one would expect them to be present at Ground Zero to make sure that no untoward incident happened. The leaders were not present on the spot to control the mob, hence the leaders of the MIPRL who said that the economic blockade is their democratic right and promised that it would be peaceful and non-violent have failed in their duties and have gone back on the public commitment they made in the media.
Had the leaders been on the spot with the protesters, they would have been able to prevent the unfortunate situation, and as reported in section of the press and admitted by eye witnesses, warning shots were fired in the air. Leaders especially a senior advocate would know what to do when warning shot are fired in the air, but because most of the protestors were ignorant, they proceeded and moved forward and the unfortunate incident happened.
The incident has two implications; first it implies that the situation would not have come to such a pass if the leaders of the organization had led from the front. Second, it also implies that the leaders did not really understand their own people and have therefore failed to prevent the situation which led to the loss of two precious lives and injury of six people. Thirdly, it is possible that the leaders used the people for their own objectives.
The father of non violent protests, Mahatma Gandhi would have called off the strike if two precious lives were lost during the protest as there is no cause more valuable than human lives. One would expect the leaders of the organization to call off the strike or at least postpone the same in honour of the departed souls, but that did not happen. Perhaps the economic blockade was intended to be violent and the two lives lost and six wounded are collateral damage that the organizers are willing to write off.
National Highway 44 also connects part of Assam, Mizoram, Tripura and parts of Manipur with the rest of the country. Traffic on this East Jaintia Hills stretch of the National Highway had come to a grinding halt in the last few days. Is it not the duty of the Government to ensure the free flow of traffic on the national highway? Is it not true that the Government by its acts of omission has denied the citizens of the country who live in these states their right to essential commodities? The government of Meghalaya has failed the people of Silchar, Barak valley, Mizoram, Tripura and Manipur by not being able to ensure free flow of traffic for transporting essential commodities to their markets.
The question can also be asked as to what prevented the government from invoking the Essential Services Management Act (ESMA) when the target of the road blockade is to disrupt movement of commercial transport vehicles including those carrying essential commodities? Is the government waiting for the price of essential commodities to escalate before it invokes ESMA? Obviously there appears to be preferential treatment from the government towards the leaders of the MIPRL otherwise the situation would not have come to such an ugly end. The Government is quick to forget a similar blunder it made by not recommending the immediate ban of the GNLA till it was forced to do so and look what has happened in Garo hills now.
And one final question to the leaders of MIPRL. All along the organization claimed that the NGT ban on transport of coal has hit the poor people hard, but when the committee constituted by the NGT allows transport of coal from the state why is it not being transported? Keeping the welfare of the poor in mind, one would expect people to take the opportunity and enable the poor to earn their livelihood and prevent starvation. So is this really about the poor or are they being used as scapegoats?
The Government has to answer these tough questions.